The latest attack brings the death toll from US military boat strikes to at least 235 from 70 maritime strikes across the region.
Published On 5 Oct 20265 Oct 2026
The United States has conducted another strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean, killing four, according to the US military.
US Southern Command said late Sunday that it struck alleged drug traffickers operating along “established narco-trafficking routes” in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean, following its standard reporting pattern for military operations of suspected cartels across the multinational maritime zones.
The latest attack brings the death toll from US military boat strikes to at least 235 deaths across 70 attacks, since the administration of US President Donald Trump first launched its counter-narcoterrorism campaign, termed Operation Southern Spear, in September of last year.
At the time, Trump characterised the fight against cartels in Latin America as an active “armed conflict” while defending the strikes as a necessary escalation to curb illicit drug trafficking and reduce fatal US overdoses.
The move comes as United Nations experts warn that the strikes violate international law and could amount to crimes against humanity.
Despite releasing footage on X showing the explosion that destroyed the moving vessel, the US military has offered no evidence that the targeted boat was ferrying drugs.
The Trump administration has been actively seeking regional security agreements across Latin America to expand joint military operations against what it has designated as criminal cartels. The deals come under the US-led Shield of the Americas coalition, launched in March. The president has pledged the undertaking will use “unmatched military might” to dismantle drug cartels while simultaneously countering Chinese economic influence in the Western Hemisphere.
During a visit to Panama in August, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras had agreed to joint counter-crime military operations on their soil, a statement Guatemala quickly disputed to clarify its sovereignty and boundaries within the 19-member alliance.
A medicine injected just twice a year could transform the fight against HIV.
In a 2024 clinical trial involving more than 2,000 young women in South Africa and Uganda, no participants who received lenacapavir contracted HIV.
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Developed by United States pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, the injectable drug can be used to prevent HIV.
“It’s the most innovative tool that has reached the HIV arena for the last decade, because it’s the closest we have [to] a vaccine,” Carlota Baptista da Silva, global HIV lead at Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials, MSF), told Al Jazeera.
The World Health Organization has recommended the long-acting injectable as an additional form of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP – medicine to reduce the risk of getting HIV.
But the arrival of the drug comes at a challenging juncture in the global fight against HIV.
International funding for HIV fell 18 percent in 2025, to $7.3bn, its lowest level in nearly two decades, according to the United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The squeeze has already hit prevention programmes: The number of people receiving medicine to reduce risk fell from 1.4 million in 2024 to 1.1 million in 2025.
That makes the arrival of a highly effective, twice-yearly prevention option significant. The question of who can access it is now more urgent.
For MSF, the scientific question has largely been answered: lenacapavir can prevent HIV with remarkable efficacy.
The fight now is whether the rules governing manufacture, price and supply will allow that scientific breakthrough to reach the people who need it.
In the United States, lenacapavir costs about $28,000 per person annually. Generic versions are expected to cost about $40 a year.
A generic version is a copy of the original drug made by another manufacturer after the patent holder licenses the technology. It contains the same active ingredient, but it can be produced and sold at a much lower price.
In June 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lenacapavir for HIV prevention, giving people the option of an injection twice a year. But in several low- and middle-income countries, access to cheaper versions is not expected at scale until 2027.
Gilead is supplying its own version of lenacapavir at no profit for programmes supported by the Global Fund and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), with rollouts under way in countries including South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria and Eswatini.
These are not the cheaper generic versions expected to cost about $40 per person a year. Gilead has licensed six manufacturers to produce those, with large-scale generic rollout expected in 2027.
At least 26 middle-income countries are excluded from Gilead’s generics agreement, MSF says, including countries with rising HIV infections and some that helped test the drug. Among them are Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Peru.
“People should not really help generate the evidence for breakthrough medicine and then find that their country is excluded from affordable generic access,” da Silva said.
According to MSF, countries excluded from the licence accounted for close to 23 percent of new HIV infections globally in 2023.
Gilead has since announced a separate agreement with the Pan American Health Organization, creating an access pathway for 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries outside its generic licensing territory, including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Peru.
MSF argues that leaves those countries dependent on Gilead rather than able to automatically buy the cheaper generics.
MSF says it still cannot buy the drug
For more than a year, MSF says it has sought permission to purchase lenacapavir directly from Gilead for its medical programmes, without demanding a discounted price.
“Despite those requests, Gilead has not allowed MSF to purchase this medicine directly,” da Silva said.
That matters particularly in humanitarian emergencies, she argues. People displaced by conflict or disaster may struggle to take a prevention pill every day, while sexual violence and other vulnerabilities can increase the risk of HIV.
Daily PrEP pills are already available as an alternative to the injection. But unlike lenacapavir, they need to be taken consistently to provide protection. An injection offering six months of protection could be particularly valuable.
“People living through conflict [and] humanitarian crises cannot be the last in line for medical innovation,” da Silva said.
Gilead declined Al Jazeera’s request for an interview due to scheduling constraints. In its emailed statement, it said its access strategy combines no-profit supplies, royalty-free licensing and regional agreements. It didn’t reply to questions about why it won’t sell its drug to MSF, or why certain countries were excluded from its generics agreement.
The company plans to provide enough lenacapavir for up to three million people through 2028 as generic manufacturers scale up production, with large-scale generic rollout expected in 2027.
MSF says that is nowhere near the scale required, pointing to projections that close to 20 million people worldwide need access to PrEP to substantially reduce new HIV infections. That includes all forms of PrEP, not just lenacapavir.
But countries left outside Gilead’s generic licensing deal may have another option.
Can governments bypass the patent barriers?
World Trade Organization (WTO) rules allow governments, in some cases, to bypass a drug company’s patent so cheaper versions of a medicine can be made or imported without the company’s permission.
They can also authorise government use of patents and challenge patents they consider weak or unjustified. The 2001 Doha Declaration affirmed WTO members’ right to use such safeguards to protect public health.
Brazil has used them before in the fight against HIV. In 2007, after negotiations with pharmaceutical company Merck over the price of the HIV drug efavirenz failed, Brazil issued a compulsory licence allowing it to access cheaper generic versions of the medicine.
Nearly two decades later, activists are urging Brazil to consider using those powers again for lenacapavir if patent barriers prevent affordable generic access.
MSF says governments excluded from Gilead’s licence could consider those same legal safeguards for lenacapavir, including compulsory licensing, government-use authorisations and challenges to patents.
It is also calling on Gilead to ensure its agreements with generic manufacturers do not prevent them from supplying countries where patent barriers have been removed through such measures.
For MSF, the stakes go beyond lenacapavir. The way the drug is made available could determine whether one of the greatest advances in HIV prevention in decades reaches people based on need, rather than where they live or what their health systems can afford.
“For a humanitarian medical organisation, we should not have to spend more than a year trying to find a way to buy a WHO-recommended medicine,” da Silva said.
BRIT Hollywood star Jodie Turner-Smith is accused of helping fund her brother’s drug use and sex parties, according to a bombshell lawsuit.
Three women have also filed a complaint against convicted felon Richard Smith – alleging sexual coercion, non consensual sexual conduct, and imprisonment.
One of them, named Jane Doe 2, alleged that Smith referred to her as his “white slave” and described himself as her “master”.
Turner-Smith is named as a defendant in the harrowing case, that is now threatening to derail her Hollywood career.
The actress, the lawsuit claims “knew of significant dangers associated with Smith and, despite that knowledge, continued to provide or make available resources that enabled [him].”
Smith used the housing and money that he received from his sister to carry out the sexual abuse, according to the claimants.
Among Turner-Smith’s gifts to her brother was an Audi that he allegedly used to transport drug packages to USPS that were then moved across state lines.
Smith also used his famous sister to make some of the women feel safe and “lower her defences” during sex parties, it was alleged.
“I used to take care of her, now she takes care of me. She pays all my bills,” he told them, as per the papers.
Turner-Smith denies all the claims made against her.
Some of the more shocking accusations were made by Jane Doe 2, who said she met Smith in 2023 at an after hours party in Los Angeles.
He allegedly pressured her to take drugs where “trays of cocaine… and firearms or other weapons were present”, the papers say.
The pair engaged in a sexual relationship that later turned “unhealthy” and “controlling”.
Smith is accused of pressuring her to have sex with him as well as multiple other men.
Jane Doe 1 also claimed he pressured her to take drugs and engage in unwanted sexual activity with him.
At times, his own children were present during some of the illicit activities at a 1555 Vine Street residence, the papers say.
Meanwhile, Jane Doe 3 said she did not feel safe in the Hollywood home, and said Smith even pressured her to sell drugs.
He further “forced sexual activity involving himself and a roommate,” she said.
The three women allege that “they have suffered and continue to suffer emotional distress, fear, anxiety, humiliation, trauma, loss of peace of mind, and other damages as a result.”
Representing the three women, Nissan Thomas, said: “This lawsuit raises serious questions about what happened, who knew about it, and what resources continued to be provided after warning signs allegedly became impossible to ignore.
“They are asking the court to examine the conduct of each defendant based on the evidence – not on family relationships, celebrity status or speculation.”
A representative for Turner-Smith told TMZ that this is a “fictional lawsuit.”
“[It] was filed by someone who has been harassing Jodie while hiding behind the name Jane Doe,” the statement said .
“The claims are not true. This is an abuse of the legal system, allowing someone to make up facts and file meritless legal documents.”
US-led anti-cartel alliance backs sanctions against crime groups after Trump urges stronger action.
United States President Donald Trump has pledged to use “unmatched military might” against drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere during a meeting of the Washington-led Shield of the Americas coalition in New York City.
In a meeting with leaders and foreign ministers from the anti-cartel alliance, Trump on Tuesday urged member countries to join the US in targeting 24 criminal organisations, which he earlier described as the “ISIS of the Western Hemisphere”.
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He said he was asking “all nations in the Shield of the Americas to formally designate narco-terrorists as common threats to stability and apply crushing sanctions” against all of the groups. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City.
The coalition’s 15 governments later issued a joint statement saying they intended to impose asset freezes and visa restrictions on members and supporters of the groups and to pursue criminal charges against them.
At the top of the list are two groups that have been declared “terrorist” organisations by Washington: Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) – one of Central America’s most powerful criminal gangs – and Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that is also active in Colombia, Peru and Chile.
The list also includes major Mexican cartels, Colombian armed groups such as the National Liberation Army, Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital and Comando Vermelho groups, and Peru’s Shining Path.
Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Bogota, Colombia, said the statement was largely symbolic for now, because each country must follow its own legal procedures.
“For example, here in Colombia, it will require a law to pass in Congress. We understand that the government here has asked Congress to move forward in drafting such a law. So while the consequences may not be immediate, this is clearly an important step towards building what the US has been trying to do in Latin America [through] this alliance,” he added.
The coalition is made up of governments closely aligned with Trump, including Argentina, Ecuador and El Salvador, whose leaders he has praised or endorsed. Colombia and Peru joined after Trump-aligned presidents took office in recent months.
Brazil and Mexico have not joined.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also attended, praised “the emergence of strong leaders who are committed to the challenge of taking on transnational terrorism”.
The gathering was the administration’s latest effort to rally the region behind a more aggressive approach to drug trafficking. Since returning to office last year, Trump has designated cartels as foreign terrorist organisations and ordered dozens of strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that US officials say were carrying narcotics bound for the US.
The strikes have killed more than 223 people, and UN experts say they violate international law and could amount to crimes against humanity.
The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, released late last year, laid out plans for a revamped Monroe Doctrine, the 19th-century policy asserting US primacy in the hemisphere that critics associate with decades of US intervention.
Trump has also spoken of retaking the Panama Canal and annexing Greenland and Canada. On Tuesday, he signed an agreement on Greenland that stopped short of his demand that the island become US territory.
The focus on the hemisphere has raised concerns across the region.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in his UN speech, bristled at the approach, warning countries in Latin America and the Caribbean of “renewed hegemonic temptations”.
“Brazil is nobody’s back yard,” Lula said.
Dispatch calls reveal supermodel Cindy Crawford’s son, Presley Gerber, who died Sunday, suffered an apparent overdose while staying at a luxury outpatient rehab facility.
After Santa Monica police received a call reporting a cardiac arrest and another call for an overdose, officers responded to Resolutions Living, a $7.7-million, seven-bedroom mansion that operates as a rehabilitation home, at about 9:35 a.m., a law enforcement source told The Times.
Paramedics pronounced Gerber dead at 9:45 a.m. Sunday. The onetime Calvin Klein model had checked into the facility just hours before, around 10 p.m. Saturday.
On Monday, the L.A. County medical examiner’s office said that it was in the early stages of investigating the 27-year-old model’s death and that limited information was available.
An autopsy was performed Monday, but the cause and manner of death have been deferred, “which means additional testing and/or studies were requested in order to make a determination.” Due to the ongoing investigation into Gerber’s death, the medical examiner’s office cannot disclose what testing and/or studies were requested.
It could take a few months for a cause of death to be determined, the statement continued.
Police say that, at this time, there is no indication of foul play, but they are also investigating Gerber’s apparent overdose. According to the law enforcement source, police are attempting to track where and whom the drugs came from.
According to Resolution Living’s website, it operates as a partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient program for the treatment of myriad mental health issues, including depression, trauma and addiction, and offers dual diagnosis treatment for co-occurring disorders.
Gerber had been candid about his mental health struggles for years through various podcast appearances and his social media, and revealed that he’d sought treatment through various rehab facilities from the time he was a teenager.
In 2023, he told “Studio 22” podcast that he wanted to use his own experience to help others battling the same issues.
“Having struggled with mental health, depression and some other things that come along with that,” he said, “I think that whether I help one person or 100 people get out of that place that I was in at one point in my life, that’s all I need to do.”
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The Food and Drug Administration approved Telix Pharmaceuticals’ (TLX) Pixclara, a radioactive imaging drug used to help evaluate patients with glioma, the company said Sunday.
Pixclara, also known as floretyrosine F 18, is approved for use with positron emission tomography to help
